A senior official in health department said people had totally failed to take serious note of directions of the health department.

"The inspection teams have washed out the mosquito larva laden water from the coolers of residents,"he said.

"It's not possible for us to control the outbreak of the disease until people cooperate with us,"said another official.

District health officer Harish Malhotra said residents' cooperation was needed to help avoid the disease becoming an epidemic.

"Inspecting teams have been directed to spread awareness among people regarding taking precautions and recognise symptoms of fever,"he said.

Besides carrying out gammexane spray in 60 houses in different colonies, they had taken 138 blood samples of suspected cases, which will be sent to microbiology laboratory at Government Rajindera Medical Hospital for IGM Maclisa test.

Malhotra added that dengue isolation wards had been established in civil hospitals across the district, and civic bodies of various towns and cities had been instructed to carry out fogging in the affected areas.

Principal of Government Rajindera Medical College KD Singh said the hospital was fully equipped to tackle the suspected as well as confirmed dengue cases.

"As many as 81 suspected cases has been admitted in the hospital out of which only 13 patients were confirmed,"he said, adding that the confirmed cases were treated successfully and have been discharged. No causality has been reported so far.